Campus News

International Studies Students Meet Parag Khanna2/14/2011Students in Dr. Jose-Thota's International Politics course, offered by the Center for International Studies, attended a lecture by Dr. Parag Khanna hosted by the Houston World Affairs Council (HWAC) on Feb. 9.

Khanna is a leading geo-strategist, world traveler and author. Presently a senior research fellow at the New America Foundation, he is author of the international best-sellers How to Run the World: Charting a Course to the Next Renaissance (2011) and The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order (2008). In 2008, Khanna was named one of Esquire’s “75 Most Influential People of the 21st Century,” and one of 15 individuals featured in WIRED magazine’s “Smart List.”

Khanna served in the foreign policy advisory group to the Barack Obama for President campaign. He was a senior geopolitical advisor to United States Special Operations Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2007. From 2002-2005, he was the Global Governance Fellow at the Brookings Institution; from 2000-2002 he worked at the World Economic Forum in Geneva; and from 1999-2000, he was a Research Associate at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

Khanna holds a PhD from the London School of Economics, and Bachelors and Masters degrees from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Born in India, Khanna grew up in the United Arab Emirates, New York, and Germany.

His lecture focused on the role of public-private partnerships in 21st century statecraft, the subject of his new book. Students learned about possible new avenues for U.S. foreign policy and discussed what role the theories discussed in Dr. Jose-Thota's class might have in Khanna's vision. After the talk, the students got the chance to talk with Parag Khanna. Additionally, through the generosity of the HWAC, each student received a copy of Khanna's new book, How to Run the World: Charting a Course to the Next Renaissance.